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Agreed...it took me awhile to figure out that drivers didn't have their brights on...they're just that bright. This is dangerous and needs to be regulated (comi

Agreed...it took me awhile to figure out that drivers didn't have their brights on...they're just that bright. This is dangerous and needs to be regulated (coming from someone who isn't very pro regulation)

isostatic 9y ago
"coming from someone who isn't very pro regulation" This affects me so it should be regulated. If it doesn't affect me it shouldn't be regulated.
- draw_down 9y ago
  Welcome to America!
- briandear 9y ago
  No. It could potentially kill someone so it might ought to be regulated. Some of the stuff the pro-regulation types want regulated is nonsensically stupid: in the EU, the shape of cucumbers, the brand names of cheese, the power output of a tea kettle, the strength of hair dryers — none of those things have any life or death consequences. People want to regulate internet content, the height of fences, the width of doorways, the capacity of private toilets — even if those toilets connect to a septic system and don’t connect to the sewer mains. Even fucking lightbulbs are subject to the agenda of unelected officials in Brussels. People, especially left wing people, just LOVE regulation. They like forcing by people to abide their opinions on how things ought to be. Considering most regulation is by executive agencies and not actually written by accountable elected officials, excessive regulation could be argued as being contrary to the ideas of a representative republic. We need less overall regulation, but that doesn’t mean NO regulation.
  - isostatic 9y ago
    Sounds like you've been reading the usual trash from the Daily Express or Breitbart or whatever. If the price of a product included all externalities, then yes regulation isn't needed, however it doesn't and can't, and this is where the usual anarcho-libertarian views fall down.
  - cannonedhamster 9y ago
    I can clearly think of very good reasons for most of the things you cited and a large majority of them have to do with neighbors who don't respect your privacy rights. For example it's entirely legal in a town near me to burn your garbage within feet of my house, creating a fire hazard and ash fall on to my freshly washed car. No legal repercussion because there's no "damage" to my property aside from the fact that my car is no longer clean, and my house may burn to the ground, but hey it's their property and regulations wouldn't help this right? When their habits cause my house to catch fire and they don't have the money to cover it, you know what would have been nice? Regulations to prevent this risk to my property. Hair dryers become a fire hazard above certain temps, same with the tea kettle. Septic toilets can overflow if not properly sized and done on the cheap in neighborhoods. Fences fall over, trash in your yard impacts house values of your neighbors that you can't recoup, width of doorways affects handicapped access as well as impedes egress during fires. I used to service homes affected by disasters so I've seen a lot of these first hand because we're in an area with a lot of houses built before the regulations. Regulations clearly provide value, especially when protecting property and safety rights that either are unlikely to be recouped or aren't able to be effectively proven otherwise. I absolutely HATE neighborhood associations though. What you're growing in your front yard, who you have over for guests, what outrageous color you paint your house, none of that impacts other people nor contributes to overall safety of others.
    - FractalLP 9y ago
      To echo you're trash burning comment....I have a neighbor in a piece of property adjoining my neighborhood that burns trash and leaves and pine straw every couple of months. Our entire neighborhood and houses fill up with this smoke. It causes wheezing fits and I can't walk my dog. Also perfectly legal in my area.
- FractalLP 9y ago
  Lol, good guess,but not quite. I'm fine with regulation on things that make sense (like obnoxiously bright headlights as it seems dangerous that drivers can't see when you're driving a car and someone with a jacked up truck (all drivers in the south)has super bright lights at your eye level. You gotta admit there is a lot of dumb regulation as well that is frequently brought up by lobbying. Why can't the government just send me a tax form instead of me needing to file my taxes manually or use TurboTax? There's a lot of stuff like that too.
  - cannonedhamster 9y ago
    The government has tried to do away with filing taxes more than once. The tax lobby in the US, specifically Intuit the makers of Turbotax, has paid a lot of good money to prevent that. Add to that the anti-taxation people want taxes to be painful so that you associate that pain with taxes and now you understand why you can't file electronically directly with the IRS who already knows how much you owe, or just get your return back if owed one.

isostatic 9y ago

"coming from someone who isn't very pro regulation" This affects me so it should be regulated. If it doesn't affect me it shouldn't be regulated.

draw_down 9y ago
Welcome to America!
briandear 9y ago
No. It could potentially kill someone so it might ought to be regulated. Some of the stuff the pro-regulation types want regulated is nonsensically stupid: in the EU, the shape of cucumbers, the brand names of cheese, the power output of a tea kettle, the strength of hair dryers — none of those things have any life or death consequences. People want to regulate internet content, the height of fences, the width of doorways, the capacity of private toilets — even if those toilets connect to a septic system and don’t connect to the sewer mains. Even fucking lightbulbs are subject to the agenda of unelected officials in Brussels. People, especially left wing people, just LOVE regulation. They like forcing by people to abide their opinions on how things ought to be. Considering most regulation is by executive agencies and not actually written by accountable elected officials, excessive regulation could be argued as being contrary to the ideas of a representative republic. We need less overall regulation, but that doesn’t mean NO regulation.
- isostatic 9y ago
  Sounds like you've been reading the usual trash from the Daily Express or Breitbart or whatever. If the price of a product included all externalities, then yes regulation isn't needed, however it doesn't and can't, and this is where the usual anarcho-libertarian views fall down.
- cannonedhamster 9y ago
  I can clearly think of very good reasons for most of the things you cited and a large majority of them have to do with neighbors who don't respect your privacy rights. For example it's entirely legal in a town near me to burn your garbage within feet of my house, creating a fire hazard and ash fall on to my freshly washed car. No legal repercussion because there's no "damage" to my property aside from the fact that my car is no longer clean, and my house may burn to the ground, but hey it's their property and regulations wouldn't help this right? When their habits cause my house to catch fire and they don't have the money to cover it, you know what would have been nice? Regulations to prevent this risk to my property. Hair dryers become a fire hazard above certain temps, same with the tea kettle. Septic toilets can overflow if not properly sized and done on the cheap in neighborhoods. Fences fall over, trash in your yard impacts house values of your neighbors that you can't recoup, width of doorways affects handicapped access as well as impedes egress during fires. I used to service homes affected by disasters so I've seen a lot of these first hand because we're in an area with a lot of houses built before the regulations. Regulations clearly provide value, especially when protecting property and safety rights that either are unlikely to be recouped or aren't able to be effectively proven otherwise. I absolutely HATE neighborhood associations though. What you're growing in your front yard, who you have over for guests, what outrageous color you paint your house, none of that impacts other people nor contributes to overall safety of others.
  - FractalLP 9y ago
    To echo you're trash burning comment....I have a neighbor in a piece of property adjoining my neighborhood that burns trash and leaves and pine straw every couple of months. Our entire neighborhood and houses fill up with this smoke. It causes wheezing fits and I can't walk my dog. Also perfectly legal in my area.
FractalLP 9y ago
Lol, good guess,but not quite. I'm fine with regulation on things that make sense (like obnoxiously bright headlights as it seems dangerous that drivers can't see when you're driving a car and someone with a jacked up truck (all drivers in the south)has super bright lights at your eye level. You gotta admit there is a lot of dumb regulation as well that is frequently brought up by lobbying. Why can't the government just send me a tax form instead of me needing to file my taxes manually or use TurboTax? There's a lot of stuff like that too.
- cannonedhamster 9y ago
  The government has tried to do away with filing taxes more than once. The tax lobby in the US, specifically Intuit the makers of Turbotax, has paid a lot of good money to prevent that. Add to that the anti-taxation people want taxes to be painful so that you associate that pain with taxes and now you understand why you can't file electronically directly with the IRS who already knows how much you owe, or just get your return back if owed one.